Victoria's Big Housing Build is tipping $5.3bn into social accommodation — not everyone's happy with where it's going. Ben Smith says the former motel is a last resort for people who've fallen on hard times. The issue is where to send them next.A $5.3 billion fund – billed as the nation’s largest-ever investment by a state government in social housing – is being rolled out in Victoria.
Some housing groups grappling with rising demand are questioning why their areas only received small fractions of the funding.On Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, there's only one crisis accommodation centre — a disused three-star motel on the brink of being redeveloped. Ben Smith, the head of the Mornington Community Support Centre, admits the 12-room motel is hardly fit-for-purpose for the people who come to stay.'When people get to this point, they've exhausted all other options,' Mr Smith said.But it's not a permanent solution. Guests usually stay for four months, and figuring out where they go next is a constant challenge. Short-term rentals and holiday homes crowd a housing market with few affordable rentals for those in the lowest income brackets. The local council declared a housing crisis in 2021 and says indicators like homelessness and the social housing waitlist have only deteriorated since then.About 420 public housing properties — more than a quarter of the area's total social housing stock — are earmarked for maintenance, but it's unclear how many are vacant while upgrades are carried out. And masking these facts, advocates say, is the region's reputation as a millionaire's playground, which tends to obscure the disadvantage lurking among its postcard-picture views. Local housing advocate Belinda Rodman said people came to the peninsula for its beautiful wineries, beaches and golf clubs, 'but there is this other side